Slip to the Void
by Dance Elle Dance
Summary: A vacation becomes a nightmare as Brenda Carter and a group of friends are sucked into the depraved world of the mine mutants. Can something be salvaged out of the darkness? ChameleonBrenda, LetchOC, AU
1. With Great Prospect

_**Disclaimer: **__I don't own The Hills Have Eyes._

_**Summary: A vacation becomes a nightmare as Brenda Carter and a group of friends are sucked into the depraved world of the mine mutants. Can something be salvaged out of the darkness? ChameleonBrenda, LetchOC, AU **_

_The Brenmeleon plot bunnies have taken over my brain, and I know I have "Sandstorm" but I wanted to write something that was more…concrete in a relationship around Brenmeleon. And, well, this is the result. I know how many projects I have in the works already, but I'm not too worried about them. I believe I can handle everything, if not rushed. There will be updates, so no worries! I also owe a lot to __**Berry's Ambitions**__, since she's been a major help with ideas and such and I am very grateful. I just adore the idea of these two together, and well, this is my first time dabbling with a set of original characters in the HHE-verse. Anyway, I hope that y'all enjoy!_

* * *

**Slip to the Void  
Chapter One: With Great Prospect**

* * *

The arid wind of the New Mexico desert blustered against Brenda Carter's face as if personally offended by her presence. And, if she were to be honest, she wasn't that thrilled with the heated breeze, either.

Riding with the windows down had always been one of her favorite things to do. With family, that is. Now, in the middle of a desert that seemed as unforgiving as it was beautiful, she wasn't so sure about the enjoyment she was supposed to be feeling.

Fresh from graduating high school, Brenda had been confronted by her friends, demanding she take a trip with them to celebrate the gaining of diplomas and the oncoming first semester of college. She had accepted, of course. They were all separating to go their different ways in just a few measly months, after all. She figured why not have a last hurrah with some of her closest friends (and a few she considered not-so-close, but that was another story).

The car - an Explorer - was cramped, but not as cramped as it would have been had Odette and Will ridden with them. Will, of course, had his own moped, and hooked up the sidecar so that his girlfriend could ride with him, ahead of the car that Brenda was currently in.

Of course, the car in which they were riding had to have the AC on the fritz. The air had gone out about an hour back, and the only thing that kept them from completely dying was rolling down the windows.

Brenda shared the car with four other individuals, though she had it better than the three that had to share the backseat. Elias, the driver and owner of this vehicle, had allowed her the front seat. Brenda had tried to protest, but Elias had insisted. According to Odette, Elias had the hots for her, which was…well, not something Brenda wanted. The offer of the front seat had felt like a bribe, thick with implications, but no one else would budge - Brenda personally felt that had been arranged to happen - so that left the blonde without any option.

Not that Elias wasn't cute. He was, with blonde hair that seemed constantly windswept, an athletic build, and piercing green eyes. But, well, he was kind of a douche. "Kind of" being an understatement.

There were two other guys in the car with them. Brenda had known Sam her entire life, and that was how she was brought into the group, though how Sam was friends with this cast of characters was beyond her. Sam was sweet, with long dirty blonde hair that was constantly tangled, large chocolate brown eyes that had dark circles underneath them, and an affinity for anything having to do with heavy metal music.

The other was Juan who was dark skinned and polite, hardly saying anything unless spoken to. His black hair that was kept short, and his shockingly light blue eyes always sparked with some kind of intellect. He was short, so short that he only barely beat Brenda in the height department.

Sandwiched between Sam and the car door was Jane. Brenda knew next to nothing about her. She had just shown up without much preamble when they were getting ready to leave Elias' house, which was a surprise for almost everyone except Elias himself, who looked ready to kill when faced with towering, gangly girl.

At school, Jane had always kept to herself, and had few real friends. Her nose was almost always in a book. Her shockingly red hair ended just below her jaw line, was almost always out-of-control, and had a natural wave that Brenda would kill for. Her grey eyes, when not focused on the words of Hemingway or Austen, were always soft and kind.

"I don't see how you can read now," Sam directed the statement towards Jane. "I always get carsick."

Brenda saw Jane look up from her book. "I…I never…ah, really have had that problem."

"She's always been like that, haven't you, Plain Jane?"

Jane visibly winced as Elias' words shot at her.

"Hey, man," Sam started, but Brenda cut him off.

"Seriously, Elias? Stop being such a dick."

"I'll show you a dick, Princess."

With anger set deep in his normally friendly eyes, Sam kicked the back of Elias' seat at the same time Brenda punched him hard in the shoulder. "Jackass. I don't even know why we hang with you."

"Because Will is my bro," he said cockily.

"Turn up the music so we don't have to listen to you," Brenda insisted, backing Sam up.

"Anything for you," he replied, moving his hand to the stereo and twisting the volume dial upward.

Brenda fought the urge to vomit, both at Elias' tone of voice when directed at her as well as the string of curse words that came immediately out of the speakers.

"Ew," Sam complained, struggling to get his voice heard over the noise. "This _sucks_. Don't you have any _Mastodon_ or something?"

Brenda found herself fighting a smile. Rap music was Sam's kryptonite. Some things never changed. Of course, his plea was overlooked, and the beats of Kanye West penetrated the quiet desert around them.

"Why would I want to listen to an extinct furry elephant, dude?" Elias asked condescendingly. "And your music is the one that sucks. Long live Jay-Z."

Sam, hating anything rap - including the infamous rap-metal mash (Anthrax and Run DMC's collab aside) - decided to give Elias the finger and then shoved his earbuds in his ears.

In the backseat, Jane closed her book and looked out the window, leaning her face against the window frame as the wind blew against her cheeks. Brenda looked back at her with an apology in her eyes, and Jane just lifted a hand, understanding in the set of her features.

Brenda turned back around and exhaled deeply, leaning her head against the seat and watching the desert pass. Elias was nodding his head to the music, something that Brenda found annoying on him but charming on Sam, who was doing the exact same thing in the backseat.

"I am _so _ready to get to the rocks," Elias said, trying to make conversation with the tension-filled car. "I heard these are a great site for climbing."

Brenda smoothed her ponytail-bound hair and decided then to put her shades over her eyes. Will and Elias had wanted to take this shortcut to climb some cliffs that were supposedly "the shit" as referred to by Will. Odette had been down for anything involving her boyfriend, and Juan, being a secret lover of anything extreme in nature, had seemed up for it as well. Brenda and Sam didn't really care, and Jane was new to the trip - an involvement that Brenda would have to ask her about later - so that means even if there was a vote, they would have been outvoted anyway.

The car rolled along, bumping every now and then. They had long since traveled off the main road, after stopping at a gas station that seemed unoccupied. They had filled up the tank and left the money on the counter inside before moving on. Brenda couldn't help but feel kind of wary about the desert after that. If anything happened to them, there was no one they could turn to for help.

She supposed she jinxed them.

In a sudden, unexpected movement, the back of Will's bike started to skid back and forth, as if out of control. Brenda could make out the frenzied movements of Will's bike as he tried to control its movements. It took a while, but thankfully he was able to pull the bike safely to a stop.

"What's wrong?" came Juan's calm, collected voice from the backseat. He, too, had registered the problem.

"I don't know," Elias ventured, stopping the car. "Hold on a second."

They all filed out of the car and headed in the direction of their other two friends.

Brenda always thought of Will as one of those weird breeds of human being - half jerk, half decent guy. It was the decent parts of him that kept her from outright despising him, like she did with Elias. They approached the couple just as Will took his helmet off, revealing that his dark brown hair was plastered to his neck and the rest of it was a mess. His hazel eyes were annoyed. "I don't know what the hell happened," he said as he rolled his broad shoulders.

Odette managed to get out of the sidecar, looking impeccable as always. She was the type that would wear heels with a t-shirt. She took off her own helmet, revealing long light brown hair that tumbled down to her mid-back. She was slender, with the body of a supermodel, and green eyes that always had an air of superiority about them, though Brenda knew that Odette herself wasn't always like that.

"Well, fix it," Odette said, her voice an octave higher than it usually was.

Before she had finished her sentence, Will made his way around the bike to check the offending item. The tire was slowly deflating, but that wasn't the most jarring thing.

The back tire had been puncture by, of all things, an arrow.

At least, that was what it looked like to Brenda. She cocked her head to the side and studied it. "Is that…what I think it is?"

"Yeah," Elias said, "a stick."

Brenda punched him in the arm, unconcerned that she might just break it one of these days. He looked pleased just by the contact, but she ignored the creepy smile he gave her in return. "No. _Look_."

Will bent over to pluck the thing from the tire, and as soon as he did so, the entire thing deflated in one foul sweep. He gazed at the item curiously, his eyes widening when he saw the sharpened rock fastened to the tip, obviously done by someone's hands. "What…what the hell?"

Odette sauntered over closer to her boyfriend, her heels making dull thuds on the dirt road. "That's odd," she observed.

"No shit, girly," Elias said, walking up to the two of them. Brenda had the urge to pummel him.

Juan was just behind Elias, his light eyes serious in his face. He took the arrow in his thin hands and stared at it for a moment. "I don't like the looks of this."

Brenda felt her stomach drop. "What do you mean?"

"This was purposeful," he said, and Brenda felt a chill go down her spine and make its way to the tips of her toes.

"How do you think?" Elias asked, skepticism evident in his voice. "We're the only ones out here. There's no one here for miles!" He stretched his arms out as far as they would go, as if encompassing the whole desert with just that one gesture.

"It's a fucking _arrow_," Juan snapped. "There's someone _shooting at us_, loco!"

Brenda swallowed, finding that she felt a lot more claustrophobic than she should, out in the vast expanse of desert. "We should go back," she suggested. "We can leave Will's bike here - "

"We are _not _leaving my bike - "

"Let me finish!" she snapped, feeling desperate, and a lot like there were eyes on her. "We could all pile into Elias' car, go back to the gas station, and see if they have a spare tire."

Elias immediately found protest with this. "But what about the rock climbing - "

"I don't think that would be - " Jane started.

"Shut _up_, Jane!" Elias shouted at the redhead. She flinched, and he continued, "You're only here because my mom is friends with your mom, and she _forced_ me to bring you! No one _wants _you here!"

Brenda felt anger pit in her stomach, a deep-seated history slapping her in the face. Except, this time the cruel words weren't directed at her, but at another person. "Elias, you - "

Jane straightened up, putting her fists at her sides, her words cutting through Brenda's rant. "That makes no difference. There is something bad here. Juan and Brenda are right."

It was the strongest voice Brenda had ever heard Jane use. It would have been something that she would have been visibly shocked by if they were in any other situation.

"Ugh, whatever, you're not even worth it." Elias threw his hands up in the air. "Fine. Let's do what they say, just to placate them. The _women _are _overreacting_." Juan gave an irritated humph. He turned with an aura of someone with something better to do, and started to walk away.

A _shucking _sound was made, like something being thrust into a solid substance. There was a beat, and then Elias started screaming. Brenda rushed over to him - him being an ass was not in the question right now - and was followed by the stampeding footsteps of her friends.

"Elias! Are you - oh my _God_." Her hands reached out to help, but it was in a blind effort to feel like she was doing something.

Another arrow, this one somehow managing to puncture Elias' calf, had come seemingly out of nowhere. Brenda stared at the grotesque sight. The arrow had gone in one side and out the other, and Elias had collapsed, holding his leg.

"Get to the car!" Juan shouted, darting forward and grasping Elias' arm. He pulled him along, and it would have been almost comical due to the size difference had they been in any other situation. Will darted forward to help, and the three girls brought up the rear.

With the van in sight, Sam stopped short. "Guys!"

"What is it?" Will snapped. He and Juan were trying to shove Elias into the backseat. "We have to get the fuck out of here!"

"That's going to be a trick worthy of Criss Angel, then," he said, his dry humor harsh.

Brenda caught up to where her friend was standing and followed his gaze to the car's tires, and a bitter, sardonic laugh escaped her throat when she saw that they had been slashed to ribbons.

Words escaped her, but it turned out that Sam had plenty, as he summed it all up in one bitingly bitter phrase.

"How's this for a fucking vacation, huh?"

* * *

_**End Chapter One.**_


	2. Amongst the Vastness

_**Disclaimer: **__I don't own The Hills Have Eyes._

_Sorry the wait for this chapter was so long! I'm so glad I got to it, finally. This is such a fun fic to write, and I had forgotten that. I really hope that y'all enjoy this new chapter, and thanks so much to __**Berry's Ambitions**__, who is just really great and wonderful with her reviews and everything. I dunno what I'd do without you! Anyway, I hope this chapter is sufficient. And hopefully the next chapter comes quicker. But yeah, thanks for reading!_

* * *

**Slip to the Void  
****Chapter Two: Amongst the Vastness**

* * *

Brenda had heard about people who had survived a major disaster talking about it afterwards and describing everything as "going in slow motion."

She never thought she'd have the awful bad luck to actually experience it herself, but she supposed that was her own naiveté showing.

There was screaming around her. Voices crying and pleading and making horrible bargains with God that should never have to be commonplace with a group of such young individuals. As soon as it registered in everyone's minds that their tires had been slashed by some unknown assailant, their little group had fallen apart at the seams.

"What are we going to do?" Odette's screech pierced the air, a shrill and unwelcome sound that seemed to make everything ten times worse.

Will rushed over to her, surprisingly keeping his head despite everything. One strong arm wrapped itself around Odette's thin shoulders, ushering her quickly to the car. Brenda was momentarily shocked by his gentleness, by his understated and hushed actions of kindness, as he got Odette into the car and out of the line of fire of whatever it was that was...

_Hunting us, _the phrase flashed through Brenda's mind before she even had the will to respond to Sam's protective touch, shoving her not-so-subtly into the car. She turned to look at him, suddenly quite fearful for his wellbeing. There was nothing between him and the mysterious, unseen enemy...

"This can't be happening...this can't be happening..." was Odette's murmured chant, hysterical and disbelieving. From her position in the backseat, Brenda looked toward the passenger seat, where Odette had been placed. She was gripping her hair, her knees curled up to her chest.

Brenda reached forward, pressing a hand to her shoulder. Odette jumped and then looked at her. "It's okay, O. It's okay."

Odette looked at her as if she were a wild animal. "You say so. But what happens when - "

Juan gently pushed Jane into the car, scooting Brenda over just a bit before walking back to where Elias lay, writhing on the desert sand and holding his leg. The three boys knelt to pick the injured up, distributing his weight between them, and headed to the back of the Explorer.

Being the strongest of the guys, other than Elias, Will reached his free arm up, still bearing the brunt of the blonde's weight, and opened the back of the vehicle. The three of them tried to heave Elias' squirming form into the back while Brenda watched.

"Stop moving, Elias!" Will shouted. "You're not helping things!"

A whistling - so faint that Brenda would have missed it had her senses not been heightened in her terror - punctured the air, and then another scream joined the cacophony.

"Juan!" Jane exclaimed, looking more animated than Brenda had ever seen her. She was ready to hurl herself across the seats to where he was. Her gaze moved from the redhead's panicked expression to the man in question.

Juan was staring out into space, shocked and still. He only then seemed to register the fact that an arrow had hit him in the back, sticking neatly between his shoulder blades. Not enough to kill, but certainly enough to maim, especially if the weapon had hit something vital.

This event only added more fuel to the group's fire. They all piled in the back and slammed the large, upswinging back door shut. The Explorer shook with the force.

Like snapping bones, curse words broke through the air. There was a gentle sobbing coming from the front seat where Odette remained. Brenda felt numb all over, her limbs feeling useless for anything other than trembling. Looking over to Jane, she could see that the taller girl was feeling the same. Her eyes were worried, her body tense and leaned forward to where the boys lay in the back.

The boys were crowded in the back, all huddled together next to their two injured comrades. Brenda looked at the driver's seat, seeing that the keys were still in the ignition. The small things were miracles in this situation. She leaned over the driver's seat and locked all the doors, hoping beyond all hope that that was enough to keep whatever it was out.

Optimism was fleeting, however, when the vehicle itself shook violently, as if it were on a roiling sea.

Odette screeched, pointing a trembling finger at the window. Once Brenda looked, however, nothing was there.

"I s-s-swear...there was something...something there! I swear!"

Will climbed out of the storage area, over the backseat, and into the driver's seat where Odette was shaking, her face white and her teeth chattering. He pulled her in his arms and then looked back towards the rest of them. Odette pressed her face into his chest.

Sam looked at Brenda then, the characteristic dark shadows underneath his eyes seeming more dark and ghastly than before. "Brenda, can I use your belt?"

The blonde nodded, unsure of where he was going with this. She unhooked the white, bejeweled belt from its loops and handed it to Sam, who took it with a strange sense of gratitude.

"Elias, I need you to listen to me here," Sam said, his voice soothing despite everything. Brenda felt the sudden urge to hug him, for whatever reason. Instead, she opted for placing a hand on Jane's, whose grip was so tight on the leather of the seats that she thought her nails would puncture it.

Elias was without a snarky comment. His blue eyes looked impossibly large in his face. He nodded.

"I'm going to get this arrow out," Sam continued. "I need you to bite the seat so you don't break your teeth."

His words, while clipped and clinical, held the familiar warmth that Brenda associated with Sam. Elias whimpered a bit, apprehension filling him, and then Brenda looked over at Juan.

Juan was white as a sheet, cliché as that may sound. His light colored eyes looked even lighter, if that was possible. He sat in the corner, legs pressed against his chest, and looked to be in shock. Brenda could see the blood that was pooling around his seated form.

Jane hadn't taken her eyes from him.

Elias situated himself so he could properly bite onto the head of the seat, and Sam started to wrap the belt around his leg above the protrusion, giving Brenda an apologetic look as he did so.

"Do you know for sure if it hit an artery?" Jane asked, her eyes still not leaving Juan's, though Juan didn't look like he was seeing anyone, anymore.

Sam shook his head. "I figure it's better to be safe than sorry."

Odette was falling apart even more in the front seat. Brenda didn't look at her but could hear Will's reassuring tones and imagined he was stroking her hair.

When the belt was tied properly, Sam looked at Elias. "Okay. Get ready."

Before Elias had time to register what the other boy was doing, Sam reached down and snapped off the tail end of the arrow. Elias gasped in shock and bit down on reflex. Sam's fingers swiftly pulled each end of the arrow out, effectively removing it while Elias squirmed and whimpered. Brenda was fairly sure she heard several curse words she had never heard before in her life; she didn't blame him for it.

Sam, who wore layers like they were going out of style, took off the t-shirt that he wore over his long-sleeved shirt and wrapped it tightly around the wound, pressing down before tying it as best he could. Blood soaked through the cloth at a sluggish pace, but it was there nonetheless, staining the band name that was emblazoned on it.

Elias pulled away from the seat and was breathing quickly, deeply, his hands clenched tightly into fists. Trembling. Fair-skinned as he was, he was paler than Brenda had ever seen him. A worry struck her since she was unsure if it was because of the blood loss or because of his fright. She placed a hand on his shoulder, but the shudders didn't subside.

Brenda looked up and saw that Sam was talking to Juan, who had finally come back to himself. He had a strange look of determination on his features. Brenda could only see Sam's back, but his thin shoulders were stiff underneath the baggy covering of his remaining shirt.

"Can you turn around so I can get a better look?" Sam asked, gently placing a bloodstained hand on Juan's shoulder. The shorter man gave a nod and then turned around. From beside her, Brenda could hear Jane stifle a disturbed noise when she saw the damage.

The arrow had struck home, all right. It stuck out of Juan's back in a frightening manner, too high up to have hit a lung, too far over to have hit his spinal cord. All in all, he had been lucky. At least, as lucky as he could have been in these circumstances.

Sam let out a strange little sigh. He sounded like his father, Brenda noted, when he came home from a particularly hard day at the hospital.

"Okay...okay..." Sam muttered to himself. Once again, Brenda felt that strange urge to reach out and comfort him. "Hold on, Juan."

"Will, man," Sam called out shakily. He hadn't flinched when he had to remove the arrow from Elias' calf. But that had been a rather simple procedure in comparison. "Do you still have that pocketknife?"

Will looked over at his friend, confusion settling in his eyes. "Yeah."

"I need it."

Brenda gulped, seeing where this was going.

Will fumbled around for a bit, finding the pocketknife in his back pocket and nudging Brenda with it. She jumped despite herself and took it from him before giving it over to Sam. He looked at the item with a dark sense of certainty and exhaled shakily.

"S-Sam..." Jane spoke, her voice shaky. "What are...you doing?"

Sam looked at Jane, an apology in his eyes. "I have to get the arrow out. It's stuck pretty snug in there."

"But...but..."

"Jane," Juan spoke for the first time. "I'll be fine."

The car was rocked yet again, and this time Brenda feared it would be tipped all the way over. Odette screamed louder than anything Brenda had ever heard in her life, and Jane moved closer to her.

Juan's back was facing the group, but he said sternly, "Hurry, Sam."

And so Sam set forward with his grisly task. He apologized profusely before he started, giving Juan a warning before he was about to start. Juan bit onto the seat just as Elias did, fighting against using curse words but groaning in pain the entire time. Jane moved closer to Brenda, as if seeking comfort from the shorter girl. Brenda just squeezed her hand tighter, unsure of what else to do. Elias was covering his ears, pained just by the sight of someone else going through what he just experienced. Odette and Will were in their own world.

Sam seemed to be having trouble keeping his eyes open as he worked. The knife was wiggling back and forth, pressed against the crudely cut stone of the arrowhead. Well, Brenda supposed that was what it looked like, if it was anything like the one they examined earlier.

"Don't fight passing out, Juan," Sam spoke softly, almost like a parent would to their child.

But Juan just groaned, his fingers curling around the edge of the seat, teeth surely shearing through the leather. The sound of creaking and pulling and separating, the grinding of metal against stone, filled the air, mingling with the sound of Odette's cries. Brenda had to look away, especially when she saw the grimace that was on Juan's face. And then she looked at Jane, whose face was contorted so much it was as if she and Juan were sharing nerve endings. Tears brimmed at the edges of her vision, and then she decided to focus on Sam, who wasn't faring any better.

Centimeter by centimeter, Sam tried desperately to pull out the arrow. The knife worked as a counter to the arrow's presence appropriately, and finally - after what Brenda thought was near a half an hour - the arrow was ripped free with a tearing sound.

Juan allowed unconsciousness to take him, then.

Sam threw the item into the corner of the back of the vehicle, which had served as his impromptu operating room. Elias was leaning against the corner, chest heaving, purposefully not looking at his leg.

"Does that cigarette lighter still work?" Sam asked, pointing to the front. "I'm going to see if I can cauterize this to keep it from bleeding."

Will reached over and turned the keys in the ignition.

Silence.

"Wh...at?" Odette questioned, breath hitching.

Will turned the keys again.

And again, silence.

"What the fuck!" Will cursed, jumping over Odette's form to take a position at the driver's seat. He tried to spring the Explorer to life. Turned the key so much that Brenda was surprised it didn't break off in the ignition. "What the _fuck_!"

Sam wiped his brow, streaking his forehead with blood as he did so. "Seems about right."

"How are we supposed to get out of here?!" Odette shrieked.

"Did you actually think we were going to be able to _drive out of here_ with four slashed tires?" Elias snapped, but his words were exhausted sounding.

The car lurched again; this time, instead of from the sides, the force came from the back, where Sam was.

"Sam!" Brenda exclaimed. Elias jolted and forced himself over into the backseat, landing squarely between Brenda and Jane.

Sam raised a hand. "I'm fine."

Jane, opposite of everything Brenda was feeling at that moment, climbed over into the back area of the Explorer. She sat down firmly, positioning herself next to Juan's unconscious form. Brenda suddenly felt so protective over her that it was suffocating. It was the type of protection she felt for Sam, which was odd, since she'd known Sam her entire life, and she hardly knew Jane.

"You have the pocketknife," Brenda spoke, her voice strangely calm. "Anything else we can use?"

"You're thinking about fighting back?" Sam asked, intrigued.

"Well, we're stuck here," Brenda said, placing her hands on her hips, a familiar gesture when she was feeling particularly angry. And this situation made her just as angry as it frightened her. "Might as well defend ourselves. Whatever is doing this, it isn't playing around."

"I agree," Jane spoke up.

"You guys are crazy." Elias pushed his fingers against his eyes. "We don't even know what it _is_."

Juan moaned, stirring for the first time in what seemed like forever. Jane was pressing a hand against his back, and it was then Brenda noticed she had ripped off the sleeve of her shirt to use as a compress.

Sam retrieved the arrows from the back seat. He pointed at the stone arrowheads and said, "This could be useful to _us_, now."

Brenda nodded, reaching for one of the arrowheads. Sam handed the other one to Jane, who took it gratefully. Brenda had a hard time envisioning Jane being violent toward anything, but if the events of the day were any indication, nothing was off limits.

"_Really_?" Elias' skeptical voice came out of nowhere. "Plain Jane? _Fight_? Now there's a joke."

"Want us to send you out there?" Sam snapped. "You only have one leg to stand on."

Elias was effectively quieted.

"What do we do?" Brenda asked, seeking a plan of action. "Do we all go out together, and then - "

"We could have two of us go out there," Sam said. "Leave a weapon in the car while we scope things out."

_Or get killed, _came that incessant, awful voice in the back of Brenda's mind.

"Yeah," Will said, "I like that plan."

Odette gripped tighter to Will's shoulder. "Don't leave me, Will...please. Don't leave me."

"I can go," Juan said. "I'll be fine."

"Not a chance," came Sam's response.

"I'm going, right?" Jane asked.

"Not a chance," was Juan's reply.

Shocked as she was by Juan's overt response, Jane found it in her to smile at him.

"Well, hurry up and fucking decide who's going," Elias interrupted. "I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if we don't do something, they're going to break in here and fucking get us - "

The shattering of glass interrupted the rest of his rant.

Brenda clenched the arrowhead so tightly in her palm that it drew blood.

In the end, the decision had been made for them.

* * *

_**End Chapter Two.**_


	3. Without Mercy

_**Disclaimer: **__I don't own The Hills Have Eyes._

_Thanks so much to __**Berry's Ambitions**__, __**Guest**__, __**The-hardest-part**__, and __**Skelegirl **for their reviews__! I really appreciate it! My goodness, I wasn't expecting it. Haha. Hopefully everyone enjoys this latest chapter. Sorry for the delay in updates. School and everything has been crazy, but hey, at least it's posted! Please enjoy!_

* * *

**Slip to the Void  
Chapter Three: Without Mercy**

* * *

Her mind blank, all Brenda could do was stare.

In the initial moment of terror, she stared as hands reached for purchase on anything near. Finding nothing, they retreated, only to appear seconds later, shattering another window. Blood seeped from cuts made on skin that had obviously seen better days. The skin, mottled and bumpy, had an appearance that lodged a strange pit of fear in her stomach.

Screaming erupted all around her, deafening her. Brenda felt her muscles tighten, her legs ready to run, fists ready to knock down anything that came her way.

Despite trying to scramble away from the shattered window, Odette was pulled from her seat first, shrieking something horrid and clawing at whatever came near. The figure that grabbed her was grotesque, now that she had a look at him. The face of the creature was just as mottled as his hands, and in his teeth he braced the blade of a butcher knife. Kicking and screaming and cursing, the brunette was pulled from the Explorer first, her arms scraping on the broken glass and leaving trails of blood behind.

"Odette!" Brenda shouted. Terror gripped her, but she couldn't let whatever that thing was take her friend. "Come on! We have to go get her!"

The vehicle gave another sickening lurch.

Jane yelped as she lost her balance, slamming against the side of the car. Sam fell to the wayside as well. Brenda gripped the leather of the head of the seat, and tried not to focus on the fact that Elias was gripping her arm as tightly as a tourniquet would. Juan moaned in the background.

Will, however, leapt from his seat and raced into the desert.

"Will!" Brenda shouted, throwing open the door and rushing out. She heard Sam cry out after her, but she didn't stop. "Will!"

Her feet seemed to sink into the sand as she chased after him. If Will was anything, it was athletic, and he was already leaving her behind as he chased after his girlfriend. Brenda shouted his name, as if her words would be enough to restrain him. She stumbled a bit, losing one of her flip-flops in the process, but paid it no attention.

"Odette!" came Will's desperate cry. There was screaming, and even though it sounded muffled, it was enough to rattle Brenda's bones.

She was getting closer to them, she could feel it. The sun was scorching on her neck, loose tendrils of hair escaping her ponytail and fluttering around her face. She was able to make out Will and the attacker, conversing something, if that was indeed what they were doing. An unconscious Odette was still in the arms of the mutant, looking like an awful rag doll, now slung over his shoulder like a sack of flour. The..._thing_, if she could be so kind as to call it that, then reached up and pulled the knife from between his teeth, brandishing it threateningly. Will didn't back down, and Brenda credited him for that. She wasn't even facing the thing and her legs were wobbling.

Gasping in shock, she tried to move forward. To do what, she wasn't sure, but the urge to help was overwhelming. Rushing down the hill, she almost tripped several times, but was able to right herself before the worst happened.

_But, _came that pesky voice again, _didn't the worst already happen?_

"Will!" she choked out, gasping as she made her way closer.

In one swift motion, one that she couldn't even comprehend, the mutant threw his cleaver. As if in slow motion, Will fell down, the large knife embedded in the upper left of his chest, directly where his heart was located. Brenda let out a gasp and stumbled over to him.

She fell to her knees, her heart thudding in her chest. She hadn't the faintest idea of what to do in a situation like this, but she couldn't help but try. Tears pricked the sides of her eyes, but she stamped them back. She couldn't afford to lose it now.

"Will," she said, stopping his hands from where they tried desperately to remove the weapon from his chest. He tried to fight against her grip, but his arms were barely able to push against hers. Blood was starting to pool beneath him, getting lost in the sand.

"O..." he rasped.

Brenda wasn't sure what to do. She placed her hands against his face, which had become the color of ash, and pressed her forehead to his. She wasn't Odette, but she could at least offer comfort.

His breaths rattled in and out, and then ceased altogether.

A few tears escaped from her eyes, which she wiped away furiously with the palms of her hands. Her mind was a flurry of incoherent thoughts, each one more nonsensical than the last.

The faint swishing of the sand caught her attention and pulled her from her grief. Brenda's frame became stiff when she saw the figure approaching her.

The figure was long and lean, barechested, and mottled looking. A pair of ragged pants hung off of his slim hips. His feet were bare, and he walked to her with a sense of purpose. In no rush. Slow and menacing.

Brenda looked down at the body before her. His eyes were still open, staring at nothing at all. She reached down and ran her fingers over his gaping stare, shutting the lids, before whispering an apology to the shell of her friend.

The creature was approaching, taking his time, but purposeful with his movements. Brenda inhaled sharply and wrapped her fingers around the hilt of the butcher knife that had been the cause of Will's untimely death. Her heart was thundering in a desperate manner in her chest, and she felt the urge to be sick, but she had to do this. Had to do this to save herself.

She clenched the hilt tightly, her fingers pressing violently into the ridges of its surface, and gave a yank. A sucking sound as well as the creaking of bone filled her ears, causing her skin to crawl. She looked up frantically, seeing that the creature was moving closer, still. Brenda tried again, yanking and receiving the same result. She fought the urge to be sick as she saw Will's body actually arc from the ground as a result of her efforts.

The creature was feet away now, and Brenda gave a shriek that sounded more primal than anything she had ever heard as, with one last tug, the cleaver was freed from Will's chest, splattering her clothing with blood.

A hysterical little cry emitted from her throat as she stood up, wobbling knees banging together as she straightened her back. She stared ahead, seeing the man now striding toward her faster. He was less than a foot away when she let out a scream and launched forward.

Brenda knew just how hopeless this was. She knew how tiny her frame was, how she was lacking in muscle and everything that could go in her favor here. The only thing in her corner was her nerve - and her speed.

The man looked at her with a growing question on his face. He cocked his head to the side, as if in curiosity, as she ran towards him. She was incensed, disturbed. She wanted to cause this creature pain, wanted to make him feel what she was feeling at this very moment.

The images of her friends raced across her mind, each in various stages of terror. She imagined what poor Odette was going through right now, remembered Will's final moments. Thought of Jane's reaction to the injured Juan, and pondered how she could have missed just how much Jane cared about him. She thought of Elias, his face twisted into a grimace as the arrow was removed from him. And she thought of Sam, his kind eyes grimly informing them of the hopelessness of their situation.

The creature reached out just as Brenda got to him, grasped her hand with little difficulty and wrenched it behind her back. She kept her grip steadfast on the cleaver, itching to drive it into his back. Somehow, somehow, she would do this one action. If it was the last action on this earth, she would injure him.

_Somehow, somehow..._

She struggled against him, kicking and screaming, trying to put some kind of mark on him, needing to make him feel what she was feeling - pain, horror, sadness, desperation.

Though, that might have been wishful thinking. This was obviously the creature's element. He was confident and smooth in his movements as he countered each of her frantic blows.

Brenda was too small in normal circumstances, but when faced with this...this _mutant_, it was almost comical. He was dodging her attempts rather easily. The difference in their reach was too great. She cried out in frustration as she finally landed a blow to his shin.

Surprised, the mutant gave a barely audible grunt as his fingers slipped from her arm.

"Son of a bitch!" Brenda cursed, seeing an opening. Her fingers twitched around the hilt of the cleaver just before she brought it down. It didn't do much damage, only open a rather deep cut on the mutant's forearm. "You _fucker_!"

The mutant hissed and threw Brenda to the sand below. She landed with a hard thump, looking at him from her position. He glared down at her, and now she noticed his eyes were the clearest blue she had ever seen. It sent a chill down her spine.

"Brenda!" came a voice from over the hill. The creature's head snapped in the direction of the sound.

"Sam!" she gasped underneath her breath. _He's still alive?_

It was only then she noticed the sound of chaos coming from over the hill. Brenda sat clearly at the base of it, sand swirling around her as a violent breeze kicked up. She coughed as she rose, shakily, her hand still gripping the cleaver in a viselike grip.

"Sam!" she called again as she saw the monster turn to follow the sound. Brenda's adrenaline kicked in full force as she scampered up the side of the hill, her feet sinking in the sand as she did so. "_Sam_!"

She could hear screams, the shuffling of feet. Brenda had paid it no mind before, as busy as she was with hopelessly fighting - she couldn't even call that fighting, actually - the creature. Brenda pulled herself up the hill, finally breaching the top. She rose, her back hunched under what seemed like an infinite amount of weight, and gasped at what she saw.

Their car, up in flames. Clouds of black smoke rising upward and staining the bright blue sky. Blood - pools of it - on the sand, almost as if it had rained the stuff. There was a dismembered hand in one of the puddles.

Brenda felt the urge to be sick.

There was a roaring sound; animalistic and brutal, it grated against her ears. It might have been saying words, it might have not been, but the command was there regardless: there was a person who wasn't dead or incapacitated and it was not supposed to be that way.

The blonde turned to look at the sound and saw something that terrified her to the core. A large and menacing mutant, out of breath and looking rather tired, but still horrifying nonetheless, had slung Sam's slender frame over one shoulder. His hair was covering his face and was caked with blood.

Brenda skittered backward, almost falling back down the hill. She turned her gaze and saw another creature with Jane in his grasp, pressing horrible fingers against her jaw. She was unconscious as well.

She tried to take everything in, tried to fit the puzzle pieces together. That hand, if she were to look closer, had the same skin tone as Juan. And, if she squinted, she could see the bloodied legs of Elias peeking out from the edge of the burning car.

Whether they were attached or not was something Brenda didn't want to contemplate.

The large man started to approach her, his eyes menacing, and yet, almost dead in his face. Sam was on his shoulder, but he looked as if he could hold five Sams and not be phased. Brenda had no doubt that he could take her, even with his bundle.

She backed up, slightly sliding down the edge of the hill. Her eyes took in the rest of her surroundings. She saw that there were two other mutants talking to each other, laughing and cackling. The mutant she had an encounter with earlier was talking to the one that was clearly the leader. Then there was a mutant conversing with the one that had Jane.

_Six, _she thought. _Six._

They had all seen her, yet they made no move to stop her, to claim her.

_Because they're confident, _Brenda thought. _They know that, if I run, they will catch me._

She met the eyes of each of the creatures.

_Maybe that's what they're waiting for._

Brenda backed up, uncertain of what to do. She couldn't just run and leave them. Not when Sam and Jane were still alive. Her feet slid down the side of the hill, but only for a fraction, because then they hit something solid.

The blonde gasped, turning around and finding that she had underestimated them. _S-Seven..._

A woman, unnaturally tall and thin, glared at her with malicious intent before slamming a rock against the side of her head.

Brenda fell to the hot sand, a mass of tangled limbs and hopeless thoughts.

At that point, unconsciousness was a gift.

* * *

_**End Chapter Three.**_


End file.
